Peasant’s Bowl

Name: Peasant’s Bowl
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin; 1/4 teaspoon ground ancho chile; 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican); 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced; 1 small shallot lobe, thinly sliced; 3/4 cup cooked black beans, preferably homemade (page 47), with 1/2 cup cooking liquid or 1/2 cup vegetable stock; Kosher or sea salt; 1 cup cooked brown rice; 1 ounce Monterey Jack, Cheddar, or feta cheese, shredded or crumbled; 1 small tomato, cored, seeded, and chopped; 1 scallion, white and green parts, thinly sliced; A few dashes hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco

December 14, 2011

One of my college hangouts was a scruffy Austin restaurant called Les Amis, which my friends and I called “Lazy Me,” in honor of the decidedly unhelpful service. The food was dependable even if the waitstaff wasn’t, and a standby for me was a simple bowl of black beans, rice, and cheese, priced so even students without trust funds could afford it. Later, I learned that the combination of beans and rice is one of the most nutritionally complete vegetarian meals possible. While beans are one of the vegetables that takes better to canning than others, if you make a pot of your own from scratch (page 47), the taste and texture are incomparable. When Les Amis finally closed, torn down to make room for a new Starbucks, I missed not just the peasant’s bowl, but those inattentive waitresses, too.

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